Keep records to duck compensation culture

12 December 2011

Sadly we now live in a compensation culture and you sometimes wonder where it will end.

It affects everything from the withdrawal of basic activities like banning snowball fights at school to ambulance chasing organisations offering to make money for clients over an unfortunate accident.

It seems someone somewhere is always to blame and so must pay for it - not a philosophy I subscribe to.

But we in financial services have been subjected to many claims after giving what appeared to be legitimate best advice. One of the largest was from payment protection insurance.

So how well is your business protected against complaints and claims against clients who you felt you had given best advice? It’s more frustrating when you are convinced you did the right thing but just don’t have the documentation to support the sale or the advice at your fingertips.

A good client management system is not just about having the IT to ensure you can service your clients, drive down administration costs and drive up business potential. It’s also about having the documentation and supporting information for what was discussed and agreed.

Brokers tell me their biggest problem with software is the time it takes to input information. But can you afford not to?

We all know that, sure as night follows day, someone is thinking of the next claim. The more you document and record actions taken on your client’s behalf, the better the protection for you and your business.

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